MILITARY INTELLIGENCE

Military Attachés

Interwar

Smith was military attaché in Berlin from 1935 to 1939. He "sought to alert the American military to the menace of a rapidly rearming Nazi Germany. Although he met incredulity among some American military officers, he continued to report what he perceived." See Truman Smith, Air Intelligence Activities: Office of the Military Attache, American Embassy, Berlin, Germany -- August 1935-April 1939 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Library Holdings, 1954-1956). See also Robert Hessen, ed., Berlin Alert: The Memoirs and Reports of Truman Smith (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1984).

Gade, John A. All My Born Days: Experiences of a Naval Intelligence Officer in Europe. New York: Scribner's, 1942.

Petersen: "Attaché in Belgium, the Netherlands and Portugal during the 1930s."

2. "Observing the Soviets: U.S. Army Attachés in Eastern Europe During the 1930s." Journal of Military History 55 (Apr. 1991): 153-183.

Glantz, Mary. "An Officer and a Diplomat? The Ambiguous Position of Philip R. Faymonville and United States-Soviet Relations, 1941-1943." Journal of Military History 72, no. 1 (Jan. 2008): 141-177.

From abstract: Army Col. Philip Faymonville "played a significant and controversial role" in U.S.-Soviet relations in the 1930s and 1940s. "The first U.S. military attaché to the Soviet Union, Faymonville provided dispassionate, accurate assessments of the Red Army's military worth. Yet he earned the enduring hostility of his military and diplomatic colleagues. During World War II, Faymonville returned to Moscow as lend-lease expediter. He reported directly to the White House, and worked independently from the military attaché and the Embassy, solidifying his position as outsider and raising questions about the role of military officers in the conduct of diplomacy."

Smith was U.S. military attaché in Berlin from 1935 to 1939. See Truman Smith, Air Intelligence Activities: Office of the Military Attache, American Embassy, Berlin, Germany -- August 1935-April 1939 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Library Holdings, 1954-1956). See also Kenneth J. Campbell, "Truman Smith: American Military Attaché," Intelligencer 9, no. 3 (Oct. 1998): 16-17.

Koch, Scott A. "The Role of US Army Military Attachés Between the World Wars: Selection and Training." Studies in Intelligence 38, no 5 (1995): 111-115.

"There is no evidence that attaché reports influenced either American weapons development or strategic planning before the war." At least part of the problem can be found in the Army's generally negative attitude toward Military Intelligence Division (MID) and in the generally correct belief that combat command promised greater opportunities for a successful military career. In addition, attachés received little more than "superficial instruction in codes and finance."

Smith, Truman. Air Intelligence Activities: Office of the Military Attache, American Embassy, Berlin, Germany -- August 1935-April 1939. New Haven, CT: Yale University Library Holdings, 1954-1956.

According to Constantinides, Smith was military attaché in Berlin for the years indicated. He prepared this report in 1953 at the request of Army intelligence. The focus is on the activities of Charles A. Lindbergh as an intelligence collector for the military attaché. The book provides "a valuable account of nonclandestine collection by attaché systems before the war." Chambers notes that this is a sanitized government report. See Robert Hessen, ed., Berlin Alert: The Memoirs and
Reports of Truman Smith (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1984). See also Kenneth J. Campbell, "Truman Smith: American Military Attaché," Intelligencer
9, no. 3 (Oct. 1998): 16-17.

Tuchman, Barbara W. Stilwell and the American Experience in China. New York: Macmillan, 1970.

Petersen: "1930s China duty as a military attaché."

U.S. War Department. General Staff. A Guide for Military Attachés. Washington, DC: 1921. [Petersen]